213 
CLIMBING PLANTS.* 
By FBANOIS DARWIN, F.L.S. 
I THINK most people have a general idea of what a climbing 
plant is. Even in the smoky air of London two repre- 
sentatives of the class flourish. A certain house in Portman 
Square shows how well the Virginian creeper will grow ; and 
- the ivy may he seen making a window- screen for some London 
dining-rooms. 
Many other climbing plants will suggest themselves : the 
vine, the honeysuckle, the hop, the bryony, as forming more or 
less striking elements in the vegetation. 
If we inquire what qualities are common to these otherwise 
different plants, we find that they all have weak and straggling 
stems, and that instead of being forced, like many weakly-built 
plants, to trail on the ground, they are all enabled to raise 
themselves high above it, by attaching themselves in some way 
to neighbouring objects. This may he effected in different 
ways ; by clinging to a flat surface, like the ivy, or twining 
round a stick, like the hop, or making use of tendrils, like the 
vine. 
These various contrivances have been studied by more than 
one German naturalist, as well as by my father, in whose book 
on the Habits of Climbing Plants very full details upon this 
subject will he found. 
Climbing plants are, first of all, divided roughly into those 
which twine and those which do not twine; twiners are repre- 
sented by the hop and the honeysuckle, and all those plants 
which climb up a stick by winding' spirally roimd it. Those 
which are not twiners — that is, which do not wind spirally round 
a stick — are such as support themselves by seizing hold of any 
neighbouring object with various kinds of grasping organs; 
these may he simple hooks, or adhering roots, or they may be 
* Founded on a Lecture delivered before the Sunday Lecture Society, 
Jan. 25th. 
